It was founded in 2019 by Leemon Baird and Mance Harmon. Baird is credited as the inventor of the hashgraph distributed consensus algorithm and currently works as Hedera’s chief scientist. Harmon is Hedera’s CEO, an experienced technology executive and a seasoned entrepreneur.

Hedera is not built on a conventional blockchain. It’s built on something called “Hashgraph.” It is a ledger and does possess a lot of the attributes of a blockchain. It solves a lot of the same problems, and serves many of the same purposes, but does so in a different way to conventional blockchains.

In a blockchain, each block contains data, and the chain means each block must have one block before it and one after it. Hashgraph uses something called A DAG (directed acyclic graph). Think of a DAG as a bunch of computers that communicate back and forth with one another about transactions they have had with nearby computers. Think of gossip between coworkers. Using this gossip, the computers agree on what the ledger (documented history of transactions) is and what data should be stored on it. Instead of a chain, think of a web.

To picture it work, think of it like this. You have 5 people on a network. Each person can interact with any other person. Every time they exchange a piece of information, that is an event. Every event holds a bunch of information which includes; timestamp, signature, transactions, and hash x 2. The two hashes allow the network to see the entire history of how the event passed through the network.

So we see the differences between a blockchain and Hashgraph, but is one actually better?

Speed: with a TPS of 10,000, Hashgraph is significantly faster than blockchains like Bitcoin and Ethereum. However, it is considerably slower than something like Solana.

Affordability: once again, just like the above with no need for miner rewards, Hashgraph transactions cost sub $0.001 compared to Ethereum which can cost up to $20 at peak times. However, most proof of stake blockchains like Solana match Hashgraph in affordability.

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What consensus mechanism does Hashgraph use?

We can see above that Bitcoin and Ethereum use a mechanism that requires them to reward miners with fees. They use a method called 'proof of work'. With this mechanism, people run a computer program and compete to solve computational puzzles as fast as possible. In return, the winners are rewarded with the native token as compensation for securing the network.

This method is pretty old fashioned and a lot of modern chains have started to move away from it. It’s obviously too slow and expensive. Ethereum is in fact moving to a proof of stake consensus mechanism.

Asynchronous Byzantine Fault Tolerance

The consensus mechanism used by Hashgraph is a complex one. Hedera believes it is the most secure mechanism currently used in the market, and it works.

Users stake their tokens similar to a proof of stake consensus mechanism. This means transactions costs are always the same, and you can earn a percentage of a transaction if your staked tokens are used. However, the specific mechanism is complex and deserves its own separate piece, so we will discuss it later on.

What is the HBAR token and what does it do?

Think of HBAR as the fuel that powers the Hedera engine. It’s the electricity that powers the city. Similar to SOL for Solana, or BNB for Binance.

The HBAR token has three main use cases; 1. Securing Hedera proof of stake network, 2. Make payments, 3. Power decentralised applications built on Hedera.

The token can be staked to secure the network. And the smart contracts and applications built on the network are powered by the HBAR token.

Who is supporting Hedera?

Hedera already has wide adoption and big backers. The project is already governed by huge corporations all over the world including LG, T-Mobile, Boeing, Google and IBM.

With support and adoption in countries such as India, Australia, Japan, South America and more. Hedera is one of the most adopted cryptocurrency projects in the world.

Disclaimer: NOT FINANCIAL NOR INVESTMENT ADVICE. Only you are responsible for any capital-related decisions you make, and only you are accountable for the results.